🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4ntlh3dfv3fcof58c8hs0a7i3uh1doukt0@4ax.com>,
Roedy Green  <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:23:40 -0700, Victor Smootbank
> <mean_priests@yahoo.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone
> who said :
> 
> >Java, C++, BASIC V2 on a Commodore 64, women are simply
> >to stupid to program a computer. If a woman can program a
> >computer, "she" is a male to female crossdresser or a shemale.
> 
> The most respected denizen of comp.lang.java.* is Patricia Shanahan.
> You are aware that Grace Hopper invented COBOL.
> Carly Fiorina was CEO of HP.
> 
> I do find it peculiar that the industry is so male-dominated.
> 
> It does not require any great physical strength.  I it an ideal
> telecommute job for someone also looking after kids.
> 
> Perhaps it is just it has a geeky mystique that puts young females
> off.
> 
> I recall the extreme difficultly young women had in the all-male
> engineering classes at UBC.  The males ragged them outrageously, much
> the way you would expect of 10 year old boys with an "no gurlz
> allowed" fort.

As you may know, this is a perennial topic of discussion among
women in the field, and CS educators.  (I am both.)  The thing
that's so disheartening to many of us is that the gender
imbalance seems to have gotten worse over the years, rather
than better.  When I first started doing things with computers,
over thirty years ago [1], I was told that it was a good field
for math/science/techie women because, unlike some of the other
fields we might be interested in, it didn't come with centuries'
worth of entrenched prejudice against women.  Somehow in a few
short decades, though, that has changed for the worse.

I blame video games [2], but I freely admit that this is an
opinion based on almost zero knowledge!  It's probably closer
to the truth to say that, at the critical age range (middle
school maybe??), most kids perceive computing to be associated
with social isolation, poor hygiene, and other traits that for
whatever reason are apt to be more off-putting to girls than boys.

[1] Cue chorus of "how time flies".

[2] My thinking here, such as it is, is that a lot of young men
seem to have become interested in computers by way of games,
which as best I can tell are more targeted at boys (shoot one's
enemies, rescue the princess) than girls.


My in-jest response to the OP, though, would be to paraphrase
something I heard in an anthropology class many many years ago:
We were told that some culture (African tribe?) believes that
alcohol is bad for women because they have "small, smooth brains".
It's a memorable phrase ....  Perhaps our small, smooth brains
also make it difficult for us to program?

-- 
B. L. Massingill
ObDisclaimer:  I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.